Wednesday, November 24, 1999
Thanksgiving race endures
Event has grown from 18 runners to 6,000
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Elder and Western Hills no longer play football on Thanksgiving. Neither do Miami and UC. But one local Thanksgiving sports tradition is alive and bigger than ever.
At 9 a.m. Thursday, runners will line up for the Thanksgiving Day Race.
|
RACE FACTS
|
• What: 90th running of the Thanksgiving Day Race
• When: 9 a.m. Thursday
• Where: Race starts at Latonia Shopping Plaza in Covington, ends downtown at Third and Elm.
• Course: 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)
• Registration: Today ($15) from 11a.m. to 7p.m. at Bob Roncker's Running Spot, 1993 Madison Rd. Race day ($20) at Convention Center beginning at 6:30a.m. No registration at Latonia Shopping Plaza.
|
The 90th running of the race, which starts at Latonia Shopping Center in Covington and ends at Third and Elm streets in downtown Cincinnati, is expected to draw a field of nearly 6,000. Only 18 lined up for the first one in 1908.
“It's a great event,” said John Sence, a three-time winner of the race. “It's the one race all the local runners come out for. You see a lot of people you don't see the rest of the year. It's a good way to start Thanksgiving.”
The Thanksgiving Day Race has been setting records for the size of the field annually in recent years: 3,804 in 1996 to 4,700 in 1997 to 5,307 last year.
“That doesn't surprise me,” said Julie Isphording, a seven-time winner who now helps direct the race. “We're seeing a second running boom. It's not the faster runners. It's the middle-of-the-pack runners, average guys and girls are getting out there and running.”
Part of the appeal is social.
“Everyone's home for the holiday,” Isphording said. “It's a chance to see old college buddies.”
But unlike races that are primarily fund-raising events or fun runs, the Thanksgiving Day Race remains true to its roots.
“It's still a race,” said Bob Roncker, who ran the race for the first time in 1961 as a UC freshman and now is one of the forces behind it as the owner of a leading local running shoe store.
Sence's winning time last year — 29:29 for 10 kilometers — was a course record. Races
without prize money usually don't draw such good fields.
Lovell Draper won the first race, covering the seven miles in 37:15, a respectable 5:19-per-mile pace. Draper also won the next five races.
For the next 60 years or so, the race remained an intimate event.
“It was Miami and UC cross country runners,” said Kent Friel, who ran his first race in 1954 as a UC freshman, “and a few other very competitive outside runners.”
Bob Schul, 1964 Olympic gold medalist at 5,000 meters, won in 1957, covering six miles in 27:30, then a national class time. Schul's Miami teammate, Dave Emery, won in 27:05 over six miles in 1960, again about as fast as runners ran in those days.
The field was usually between 20 and 40.
“It always drew a good field,” Roncker said. “There just weren't a lot of other races.”
“I quit running it after I ran 61/2-minute miles one year and was so far last I couldn't see another runner,” he said.
Run 61/2-minute miles today and you'd have 5,000 runners behind you.
The Thanksgiving Day Race got its first big bump with the running boom of the 1970s. The field doubled each year from 1975 until 1978. It reached 2,331 the next year, then stayed in that range before the new boom of the '90s.
The distance and the courses have varied over the years. The seven-mile race the first year was the longest. The shortest was three miles in 1933. It usually has been around six miles.
It became a TAC-(The Athletic Congress) certified 10-kilometer course in 1986.
The one constant: It always has started in Northern Kentucky and ended in Cincinnati.
Stadium construction has meant moving things around slightly the last few years, although this year's course is the same as last year's. The finish is in the midst of the Paul Brown Stadium/Fort Washington Way construction zone.
“I'm going to tell people at the start to be real careful and watch their step on the sprint to the finish,” Isphording said. “Just like the cars, runners have to put up with orange barrels.”
Sence won't be racing this year, because he's coming off an injury. But he'll be there.
“I'm going to jog it,” he said. “For the fun of it. I've never done that before, but I don't want to miss it.
After all, it's a Thanksgiving tradition.
Sports Stories
Versatility now Fletcher's goal
Nine Bearcats earn C-USA football honors
UC volleyball team faces NCAA champ
Xavier expects to face Louisville's best
No. 10 Kansas heads Alaska field
Bengals give up on Brice
Steelers coach threatens changes
